Educating Greater Manchester's Drew Povey was struck off from teaching – but why?
The former Harrop Fold, Salford headteacher and his brother, Ross, who served as assistant head at the school which has since been renamed The Lowry Academy were deemed have been "unacceptable" in the profession, leading them to losing their roles. The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) accused the siblings of 'unacceptable professional conduct' after allegations surfaced that pupils were being removed from the school register in a practice known as 'off-rolling'.
An investigation panel believed that the removal of students from the 11 to 16 year-old academy is likely to have improved the academy's performance, including in GCSE results data. Drew Povey, who resigned from his role in 2018 after being suspended had initially denied all allegations made against him.
However, the panel from the TRA have proven the allegations to have been accurate. He was accused of failing to maintain accurate records which potentially put pupils at risk. The panel found his actions to have been "deliberate". He said that although "administrative mistakes" were made "on my watch", he will "never accept that I was involved in any deliberate plan to off-roll or to change attendance data."
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©RYAN MCNAMARA 2018)Povey is said to be appealing the ban on teaching to the High Court. An investigation uncovered that three students were removed from the school's register ahead of the January school census in 2018. They were however added back at a later date. This meant that their exam results did not count towards the overall performance of the institution.
The TRA saw emails which showed staff speaking about "removing some of our worst performing year 11s so that they don't count on results." The panel "noted that there was no evidence of Drew Povey's direct involvement in the decision to 'off-roll' the pupils concerned. However, in his written statement, he accepted that he had failed to prevent the 'off-rolling'."
It also discovered that Mr Povey "caused the amendment of pupil attendance data" on the management system in order to "represent that one or more pupils attended school when he knew or ought to have known that in fact they had not." A witness noticed that the SIMS data showed "around 600 register marks originally made between January 1, 2018, and April 30, 2018, were changed." On May 18 of the same year, days before the school had to submit their census data.
The marks were "predominantly unauthorised absences" and those on the panel "considered it implausible that all of the amendments made on one day immediately prior to submission of the May census were genuine corrections." Witnesses are reported to have been told to make the attendance records "look better" and Povey had allegedly wanted to see absence increase from 92 to 94 per cent.
After Drew resigned, parents at the now renamed Lowry Academy pledged to fight for Drew's reinstatement. At the time, the ex-head admitted to 'administrative errors' involving a few students but claimed he was the victim of a 'personal vendetta'. Despite numerous character references praising Drew as 'kind', a 'breath of fresh air', and an 'exceptional charismatic leader', it emerged at an October hearing that his counsel conceded Drew was a 'poor school manager' with 'very limited knowledge' of necessary administrative rigour, raising concerns about a potential repeat of his actions.
Drew and his brother have been indefinitely banned from teaching, meaning they're not allowed to work in any school, sixth form college, youth accommodation or children's home in England. They can apply to have this ban lifted, but not until October 30, 2026.
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